canada

1. Welcome to GATTACA The United Arab Emirates’ Khaleej Times reports on the near future of reproductive technologies. Genetic engineering of the embryo could mean that people will soon be able to produce ‘super babies.’ “People can start modifying embryos, for example, activating certain genes and replacing others or like removing all defective genes that […]

1. Egg “Donation” and Its Consequences We were contacted this week by Leah, a young woman who “donated” her eggs this summer. She found us as she researched how to deal with the complications she suffered, and continues to suffer, in the wake of her “donation”. Five days after her egg retrieval, her husband took […]

Many bioethics stories cross our inboxes and screens each day. Some we write about here and in other venues, and others we simply blurb or write a short comment on via our social media outlets. Of course, not everyone is on social media or follows us there, so I thought I’d collect a few items […]

I have written about the Margot Bentley case before, and bring it up again because I think it may be the most important bioethical litigation now pending of which I am aware. At stake is whether a nursing home can be forced to starve a patient to death by withholding spoon feeding. From the Vancouver […]

There are two primary areas of contention in the euthanasia debate. The first is whether to legalize medicalized killing. The second question arises if the answer to the first is yes: Should doctors and other health care professionals with religious or conscious objections be forced to participate in medicalized killing — either by having to […]

Readers might recall the Hassan Rasouli case. Rasouli, a devout Muslim, had a stroke. His doctors wanted to force him off life support over the objection of his family, who claim he would want to live. Litigation ensued. The Canadian Supreme Court just ruled that it isn’t up to the doctors. From the Toronto Sun […]

A Canadian Court of Appeals has upheld Canada’s legal ban on assisted suicide as constitutional. From the Calgary Sun story: British Columbia’s Court of Appeal has reversed a lower court ruling that said Canada’s assisted-suicide ban violated the charter rights of gravely ill Canadians. Two of the three judges in the split decision ruled that […]

The Quebec Parliament is debating one of the most radical euthanasia bills I have ever seen. How radical? It mandates that doctors do — or be complicit in — the euthanizing. In the face of this madness, a palliative care nurse named Jean Echlin asks a cogent question: “What kind of society are we becoming?” […]

Francoise Baylis, a professor in Bioethics and Philosophy in Canada, has an important piece out on the Quebec law that pays for up to three IVF cycles out of the state-funded public health system. I wrote about this bad decision when Quebec passed the law in 2010. Is it working? Sort of. IVF cycles in […]

It seems that fertility brokers — and clinics and the reproductive lawyers — are getting more aggressive these days. My hunch is that marriage debates are emboldening them to seek more liberal IVF laws in order to assist singles and same-sex couples in family building. Canada, which has laws I quite like (Canada prohibits the […]

A bill to legalize euthanasia in Quebec has been filed, and it is a radical disaster. First, it would require that all “institutions,” e.g., hospitals, nursing homes, and residential care facilities “provide” terminal sedation (put into a coma and dehydrated to death) or euthanasia, which are included in the bill’s definition of the term, “end […]

No one should be forced to kill or participate in killing. But if a recommendation of a Quebec euthanasia commission to legalize doctor-administered death are followed (discussed in more detail here) every Quebec physician will be conscripted to participate in homicide as a condition of practicing medicine. From the “Dying with Dignity” Commission recommendation (PDF): […]

Quebec is about to make a major push to legalize euthanasia based on the recommendations of a commission. I have now had a chance to read the report, and it is pushing Quebec (and thence, Canada) toward a Belgium style culture of death. Here’s an overview: First, the euphemism “aid in dying” means active killing […]

Pro suicide Quebec, on the verge of legalizing doctor-prescribed death for some people, wants to fight suicide for other people. From the CBCNews.ca story: Quebec’s suicide prevention association (AQPS) has started a campaign to mark the province’s 23rd suicide prevention week. “You’re important to us. Suicide is not an option” aims to sensitize public to […]

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC We knew this was coming, because the fix was in: The BC Supreme Court Chief Justice has ruled that the law against assisted suicide is unconstitutional. From the CBC story: In her judgment, Smith speaks directly to the situation faced by Gloria Taylor, a B.C. […]

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC I have written that I suspect the fix is in with regard to the pro assisted suicide lawsuit filed in British Columbia. But at least the Canadian Government is fighting the good fight. Marcia Angell, the former editor of the NEJM–and a wildly emotional euthanasia […]

This week, we are pleased to feature an in-depth report on assisted reproduction in Canada. The report was prepared by our 2011 Blackstone Legal Intern, Brittney Sharp. The report is especially timely as Jennifer Lahl will be in Toronto later this month speaking at a conference on reproductive issues and filming two interviews for our […]

This week, we are pleased to feature an in-depth report on assisted reproduction in Canada. The report was prepared by our 2011 Blackstone Legal Intern, Brittney Sharp. The report is especially timely as Jennifer Lahl will be in Toronto later this month speaking at a conference on reproductive issues and filming two interviews for our […]